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Why Valve's 'Steam Box' PC-Console Will Be A Game Changer

All the signs have pointed toward Valve introducing its own Steam Box console, and this time the rumors were true.

When I first heard of Valve’s rumored “Steam Box” I admit to being a bit dubious.

What would differentiate the PC-in-a-box from any other PC? And how would Valve balance the tinkering and upgrading needs of PC gamers with the nature of console development, which utilizes standards in order to serve a large consumer base?

Console games just work no matter what. If you have an Xbox 360, your Xbox 360 game will run on it; however, if you have a PC, there’s no guarantee your specs will be up to snuff.

The point of having a gaming PC, on the other hand, is to be able to upgrade and power-up your hardware in order to play cutting edge games. So there’s an inherent conflict between the PC and the console, and I’m still not 100% sure how Valve will reconcile it.

Nonetheless, news that Valve hardware is on the way for 2013 still has me excited. The fact is, Valve has made several key steps on their way to the hardware’s release that help paint a much more clear and sensible picture of what the developer and publisher is after.

The Big Picture

One of the most visible steps Valve has taken toward bringing its digital distribution service to the living room is the new Big Picture mode.

“We’re confident in some things that customers want,” Valve’s Greg Coomer told Kotaku earlier this year. “They want a full-screen experience. They want to be in the living room. They want to use a game controller. They wanna have a social gaming experience. And we have this platform that lets us ship a significant portion of that experience.”

At the time Coomer made those comments, he was speaking directly to the software side of the equation. Making Steam big-screen accessible, however, is only one piece of the puzzle.

Kotaku’s Jason Schreier caught up with Valve boss Gabe Newell at the VGAs and asked him about the hardware itself. Newell’s admission that the company would be developing hardware for release next year comes after much speculation.

“I think in general that most customers and most developers are gonna find that [the PC is] a better environment for them,” Newell told Kotaku. “Cause they won’t have to split the world into thinking about ‘why are my friends in the living room, why are my video sources in the living room different from everyone else?’ So in a sense we hopefully are gonna unify those environments.”

Valve Controllers, Wearable Computing

Long before Big Picture mode was revealed, other pieces in the puzzle were already coming together.

When Valve’s patent for a video game controller with “moddable” parts was discovered, rumors of the Steam Box gained new momentum.

The above concept work for the patent filing shows a controller similar to the Xbox 360, but with removable pieces that can be switched around at will.

When you look at this controller and then at the remarkable Lotus control scheme in Big Picture mode you start to see how all the stars for a living-room-centric Steam experience were aligning.

Valve is also working on “wearable computing,” something Newell has made a big deal out of in the past.

Touch-computing is a fad, according to Newell. The future is in things like wrist-bands with highly-accurate motion controls.

“Post touch, depending on how sci-fi you want to get, is a couple of different technologies combined together. The two problems are input and output,” he said at the Seattle Casual Connect conference, adding that “we will have bands on our wrists, and you’ll be doing something with your hands, which are really expressive.”

This statement came on the heels of Valve’s Michael Abrash’s big wearable computing reveal. Obviously, between Big Picture mode, wearable computing, moddable controls, and all the other R&D experimentation the company is up to, something big was in the works.

Add to the pile Valve’s own 3D gaming goggles, and you can get a sense of just how serious the company is about its hardware development. Things like wearable computing and 3D goggles make more sense in a living room environment where gamers aren’t necessarily so confined to desks and monitors.

Steam Linux

The final piece to the puzzle, though, is still about the software itself.

When Newell declared Windows 8 a “catastrophe” and Valve announced their adoption of Linux, a Steam-based console seemed all but inevitable. Big Picture mode, Linux, lots of hardware accessories, and a bunch of people at Valve talking up the importance of living room-based gaming…the next logical step is a machine to pull it all together.

Steam itself is hugely profitable for Valve, but as Amazon has shown with its Kindle service, the entire ecosystem isn’t complete without hardware. If Valve wants to compete directly against Microsoft and every other company in the gaming industry, including Apple, they need an ecosystem of their own, and a platform that includes both software and hardware.

But just because the system will likely be Linux-based doesn’t mean we should expect anything too open-source. From what Newell told Kotaku, it sounds less open than the upcoming Android-based Ouya console.

“Well certainly our hardware will be a very controlled environment,” he said. “If you want more flexibility, you can always buy a more general purpose PC. For people who want a more turnkey solution, that’s what some people are really gonna want for their living room.

“The nice thing about a PC is a lot of different people can try out different solutions, and customers can find the ones that work best for them.”

The Market

Here’s that question of balance again.

There needs to be a balance between couch-convenience and PC power. There also needs to be a balance between price and specs which may be just as hard to achieve. PC gamers will pay top dollar for powerful machines, but what will the audience for a Steam Box be willing to fork over for the machine?

And what is the market for this machine in the first place? Console gamers might feel little reason to switch from their preferred platforms, and PC gamers might gravitate toward standard, open PCs that are more easily attuned to their own needs.

That being said, Valve has always displayed a pretty strong sense of what consumers want and how to deliver. If they launch the system alongside Half-Life 3 and some other first-party gems, this could make huge waves. Though I doubt Half-Life 3 will be a Steam Box exclusive, it could still release as part of a package deal.

Furthermore, the emphasis on a standardized PC running Steam Big Picture could breathe new life into PC development. That alone could be a game changer for the video game industry.

One also imagines that the machine would be much more regularly updated than its console counterparts.

Rather than have complicated specs determine whether a game would run on your machine, games could run on Steam Box 2 and up, or Steam Box 3 and up (similar to iOS games.) This standardization and simplification of PC gaming would be a huge benefit to many consumers and developers alike, while not really impacting more “hardcore” PC gamers.

With next-gen consoles likely being announced next year by Microsoft and Sony, and start-ups like Ouya on the horizon, 2013 is certainly shaping up to be a very, very interesting year.

[Correction: An earlier version of this post mistakenly said Big Picture was still in beta. I somehow missed the fact that it had left beta earlier this month.]

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I think the perspective here is wrong, both of the article and the comments.

The reason for Steambox’s existence does not lie in hardware.

One thing you have to understand about Valve is that they do projects to support their games and the way their games are experienced by their consumers. It may come as a shock but steam was born because Valve faced problems for releasing updates for their games.

They once again faced a similar problem but this time it was associated with Xbox: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/263859/valve-xbox-live-such-a-train-wreck/ http://www.planetxbox360.com/article_7760/Valve_Microsoft_Forced_Us_to_Charge_for_Left_4_Dead_DLC

And so you can readily imagine, it’s advantages over consoles will again not come from hardware (or atleast not primarily/initially) but rather from the software side of things.

Steam as of date has far more features than either Xbox or PS services offer (in my not so well informed opinion). Specially in terms of updates, mods/workshop, greenlight etc. having control over hardware will strengthen the anti-piracy, anti-cheat measures Valve can take. Combine that with (hopefully) free mutiplayer/online unlike Xbox and much better share of profits than what the competition gives. Oh and the MASSIVE library of steam games.

Immediately you can see Valve in an excellent position to exploit these competitive advantages and then couple that with the advantages of consoles: 1. Standard Hardware 2. Strong Anti-piracy measures 3. In your living room 4. Plug and Play

Ofcourse you are correct that Valve has shown great interest in new input/output devices and it might serve as one way for them to share their vision of such devices, which will inevitably lead to another advantage over its competitors.

Though to me personally, the strength comes from a simple fact: free content. So I can have a console where I don’t have to buy ridiculously priced map packs, skins and models when I can get better ones for free. Not to mention more substantial content like total conversions.

Snyde – I think you misread me. I agree, the point of the Steambox is not to sell hardware. It’s to create the same kind of cash machine that the Kindle has created for Amazon. The Kindle itself is secondary to the eBooks and other services Amazon sells thanks to its Kindle and Kindle Fire offerings. Valve wants to have more control over its destiny, but it will still make the most off its software.

Perhaps, wrong was a strong word. But I felt most of the emphasis was about analysing what Valve is going to do in terms of hardware.

I meant to say exactly as you did “Valve wants to have more control over its destiny” is what steambox is about. Just like how Steam was also about ‘having more control over its destiny’.

My prediction is it’ll destroy the competition or atleast radically force them to change their (rather horrid) business practices. Why? Simply because Valve things about the consumer/gamer first and then empowering developers to deliver content to gamers. Most console companies (specifically microsoft) think about themselves first and publishers second.

360′s success can be charted down to the live service which then had a great USP but that’s been eroded by steam (and surpassed). Unless valve does something really stupid it would be hell for Sony/Microsoft to do something radical to even compete.

Everyone know what Steam’s greatest weapons are: Discount, ridiculous discount If they could bought 30+ games with just $50, who wouldn’t want to buy that “living room pcgaming”? Also, their another weapon is Digital distribution is Valve most supreme effective weapon. Sony try to imitate it but unless they ready to give customer huge discount, PSN Store is just cheap imitation of Steam.

Maybe my understanding of Steam power is shallow, but as someone who come from developing country, the prices that Steam give is really what make them so appealing.